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Iowa Episode 2: The history and the rules · Pod Save America

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: It's a pretty bottle. This is how I think most
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Americans pick wine. We sort of like what it looks like.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Back in August, I went to a Cabernet for Corey
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: house party in Urbandale, Iowa, which is just a few
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: minutes outside of Des Moines. Obviously, I wasn't going to
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: show up empty-handed.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Do you want a round back.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: For that?
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: That's okay.
• 0:23
  Speaker 5: This is great.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much. So we leave the Hy-Vee grocery store,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: moderately priced bottle of wine in hand, and head over
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to Urbandale. Oh, I see some Corey signs. Here, you
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: want to carry the wine?
• 0:37
  Speaker 6: Hi.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Hello.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: How are you? We brought some Cabernet. Hi. We wanted
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to get in the spirit. There are five potential caucus
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: goers sitting in a circle in Dave and Cheryl Jensen's
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: living room. It's a nice scene. There's some jazz on
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: in the background, and their big fat cat keeps wandering
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: in and out of the room. They all introduce themselves.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: I'm Lauren, born and raised on the south side of Chicago,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: in a Democratic home.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Mitch Smith, the field organizer we met last week, set
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: up this event. Besides Mitch, everyone here is in their
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: 60s or 70s, and all but one are longtime Democrats.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Two of the people in the room are already committed
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: to caucus for Cory Booker. They like the way he speaks,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: they like his energy, they like his optimism.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: In the end, we want somebody who can rock us
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: to sleep, too.
• 1:21
  Speaker 7: Make us feel good at night when we go to bed,
• 1:22
  Speaker 7: and we'll get up in the morning and things will
• 1:25
  Speaker 7: still be okay.
• 1:26
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: That sounds nice. I miss that.
• 1:29
  Speaker 6: Oh boy.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Oh boy, do I miss it.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: The rest of the people there are undecided, including the hosts,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Dave and Cheryl. And that is just classic Iowa. Most
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of the country is paying no attention to this primary,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: but this couple invited a bunch of strangers into their
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: home to talk about a campaign that they have not
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: endorsed yet. It's a pretty casual conversation.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Well, I paid for my kids' college and, you know,
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: we took out student loans and paid it back and
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Why should we as a country be paying millionaires' kids'
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: student loans?
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Mitch is mostly listening, but he occasionally jumps in to
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: talk about Corey's record.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: If Mitch didn't know something, he promised to follow up.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Just one more item for his massive to-do list. If
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I were trying to replace you in writing your job description,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I would say you are... friend, organizer, party planner, sounding board,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: policy expert, communications expert, Booker expert. Is that about right?
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: It's hard to disagree with that.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: I think that's the fun part of this job is
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: like having so many of those responsibilities and, you know,
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: meetings like this are the most fun part.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Mitch joined the Booker campaign early. He saw Corey speak
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: in Des Moines on the day Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court in October of 2018. Mitch decided
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: that day that if Cory Booker ran for president, he
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: wanted in. Now he's working one small but crucial patch
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of Polk County. There are 99 counties in Iowa, but Polk,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: which includes Des Moines, will deliver almost a fifth of
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the state's delegates. We checked in by phone this fall.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: I am definitely lucky that I only have one corner
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: of one county. You know, what I appreciate is that
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: my ability to connect with folks who live there has
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: changed dramatically since I moved in. It's not just asking them,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: you know, hey, can we grab coffee? It's asking them
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: like how their dog is doing or how their kids
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: little league game went.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're not meeting relatives and kids the first time.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: You know that their baseball team is like six and
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: four and that they're really vying for the playoffs.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: If they make the playoffs, then the grandma can't host
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: the debate watch party that I want her to host.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: So I'm like, you know, rooting for the kids team,
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: but also sort of not at the same time.
• 3:47
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I'm Tommy Vitor, and this is episode two of a
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: special Pod Save America series from Iowa. Today, we're going
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: to talk about how Iowa became the first contest in
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: the Democratic presidential primaries. But first, let's take a second
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: to nerd out on the mechanics of the caucuses, because one,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting. And two, I think it
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: helps explain why campaigning in Iowa tends to feel less
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: nasty and terrible than it does everywhere else. I'm not
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: from Iowa, so I've never caucused myself, but I did
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: get to visit one back in 2008 with Obama.
• 4:27
  Speaker 8: Those couple nights before the caucuses were the coldest nights
• 4:31
  Speaker 8: of the year. And we got inside, and it was
• 4:34
  Speaker 8: just this sea of people.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: This is President Obama describing that 2008 caucus to Chris
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Liddell Westefeld for his book, They Said This Day Would
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Never Come.
• 4:45
  Speaker 8: Every age, different backgrounds. You had farmers... and overalls and,
• 4:53
  Speaker 8: you know, seed hats. And you had young African-American kids,
• 4:59
  Speaker 8: Latino moms. You know, the fact that people had brought
• 5:04
  Speaker 8: their kids and there were a lot of families who
• 5:05
  Speaker 8: had shown up gave it this festive feeling. I still
• 5:09
  Speaker 8: remember there was a guy who looked like Gandalf. He
• 5:15
  Speaker 8: was dressed in this white gown. robe and he had
• 5:19
  Speaker 8: this long white beard and he had this white staff.
• 5:23
  Speaker 8: And at the top of the staff, he had jerry-rigged
• 5:27
  Speaker 8: this little video screen that was playing my JJ speech
• 5:32
  Speaker 8: looped over and over again.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: So the Gandalf thing was a little weird, but seeing
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: all of those people showing up and joyfully participating in
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: democracy was actually pretty inspiring. And this was long before
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: we knew the results. But I bet you're wondering why
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: everyone was just hanging out at a caucus location. To
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: understand that, we have to understand why a caucus itself
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: is different.
• 5:54
  Speaker 9: I think the simple way to think of it is
• 5:57
  Speaker 9: that we're used to voting as people, individuals. When you
• 6:01
  Speaker 9: participate in a caucus, you are voting as a community.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Rob Sand is the state auditor in Iowa. He is
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: a young star of the state Democratic Party. He's a
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: highly coveted endorsement. And strangely, he looks a lot like me.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: I'm not kidding. I actually got stopped for a photo
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: by a woman in Iowa who thought I was Rob.
• 6:17
  Speaker 9: Really, fundamentally, what it comes down to is you're there
• 6:19
  Speaker 9: together to decide how we are going to govern ourselves together, right? Ultimately,
• 6:24
  Speaker 9: we're picking someone who is going to lead us, and
• 6:27
  Speaker 9: so us picks that person.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Iowa has been picking its candidates by caucus since the 1800s,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and it kind of feels like a holdover from another era.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: In a primary, you can just show up at any
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: time on election day, you pull your lever, and you
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: walk out. In some states, you can vote early, you
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: can vote by mail, but it's a secret, solitary act.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Not in Iowa. On caucus night, you have to be
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: in line to get into your caucus location by 7 p.m.
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: Sharp.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: If you're late, you don't get to caucus. If you're
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: on time, you then go into the school gym or
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the public library or whatever the location is, and you
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: go and you physically stand in a corner with everyone
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: else supporting your candidate. Or, and honestly, this is incredible
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to me, You might show up still undecided. Here's Rob Sandigan.
• 7:14
  Speaker 9: I think one of the reasons that Iowa is really
• 7:17
  Speaker 9: good at doing this is that there's a lot of
• 7:18
  Speaker 9: Iowans who agree with the idea that you don't know
• 7:20
  Speaker 9: what you don't know. And, you know, you might have
• 7:23
  Speaker 9: a favorite, but until you've actually stood in someone's corner,
• 7:27
  Speaker 9: you might learn something new about them. You might learn
• 7:30
  Speaker 9: something new about someone else. And you keep your mind
• 7:33
  Speaker 9: open until the moment where you have to commit.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: There are a lot of critiques of the Iowa caucuses.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: A big one, and Julian Castro has been talking about
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: this lately, is that the state is really white. We'll
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: talk about that and all the other knocks on Iowa
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: in our next episode. But for now, Iowa is still
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: the first contest. Iowa still reigns supreme. And candidates go
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: all out in Iowa because winning or even just doing
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: better than expectations can get you a ton of media
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: attention and momentum. And they will need it because the
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: New Hampshire primary is just a week after the Iowa caucuses. Technically, though,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: what you're competing for on caucus night are delegates. So
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: come with me into the weeds of the delegate selection process.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Iowa has 1,678 precincts. So that means there are 1,678
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: mini elections happening on caucus night. At each precinct, people
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: elect delegates to the county conventions. Every precinct awards at
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: least one delegate, even if just a couple people show
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: up to that caucus location. That's why campaigns try to
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: be competitive everywhere, like David Plouffe mentioned in the last episode.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: And to get those precinct delegates, a candidate has to
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: meet what's called a viability threshold. This is very important. Generally,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: viability means you have to have support from at least
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: 15% of the people in the room on caucus night.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: That math changes a little bit in some of the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: really small precincts, but basically the gist is if 100
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: people show up to a caucus location and 14 of
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: them are supporting candidate X precincts, That candidate, candidate X,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: is not viable because they didn't meet the 15% threshold.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: So the people that are supporting candidate X either get
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: to pick someone else or go home. That part's called realigning.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: And that realignment means that campaigns really care about being
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: your first and your second choice. And it's also what
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: makes Iowa so different. Okay, so I know I just
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: threw a bunch of rules and numbers at you, but
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: I promise it's worth understanding and ultimately not that complicated.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: So take 2016, for example. Here's what it sounded like
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: at one caucus location in Polk County.
• 9:34
  Speaker 10: Good evening and welcome to the 2016 Iowa Democratic Party
• 9:39
  Speaker 10: Precinct Caucuses. Congratulations. As a participant in one of our
• 9:43
  Speaker 10: state's most storied traditions, you are now a part of
• 9:46
  Speaker 10: both Iowa and U.S. history.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you all remember 2016, unfortunately, that general election result,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: but the Democratic primary was Bernie, Hillary, and Martin O'Malley.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Here's Team Bernie making their K for their candidate.
• 10:03
  Speaker 7: Do we carry on as we are or do we
• 10:06
  Speaker 7: fight for fairness?
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: We fight for fairness! And here's some folks who supported
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: She has the most experience and the most qualified on
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: both sides of the aisle. She takes this very seriously.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: She's supported women and children her entire life. And as
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: a mother of three daughters, it's high time we elect
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: a female president.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: And here's Martin O'Malley's guy valiantly making his case.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: As a Democrat, I feel blessed that we have three
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: fantastic candidates. And I'm not going to beat around the bush.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: It has been a very, very hard choice for me.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: After the first count, here's how it's stacked up.
• 10:43
  Speaker 10: There are eight uncommitted. 26, O'Malley.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: 218, I believe.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: No.
• 10:51
  Speaker 10: 215 for Sanders and 210 for Clinton.
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: I was trying to do it from memory. My apologies.
• 11:03
  Speaker 10: All right, listen up. One more thing to say. In
• 11:06
  Speaker 10: order to be viable, your group has to have at least.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: So O'Malley was not viable in that precinct. O'Malley's voters
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: could get behind somebody else, or they could just call
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: it quits and go home. Sanders and Clinton supporters started
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: making their case. Three people left. Everyone else ended up realigning.
• 11:32
  Speaker 7: Okay, so all of the.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Undecided. Undecided. And all O'Malley... Realigned.
• 11:40
  Speaker 9: Realigned.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: And now commencing recounts for Clinton and Sanders. After realignment,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Clinton ended up having more supporters in the room than
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Bernie did.
• 11:52
  Speaker 10: Here's where we now stand. Uncommitted, zero. O'Malley, zero. Clinton, 232. Sanders, 224.
• 12:03
  Speaker 10: For a total of, hold on, hold on, 456. We
• 12:09
  Speaker 10: lost three people in the melee, apparently.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: So when it got totaled up, Hillary Clinton got five
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: delegates from that precinct and Bernie Sanders got four. Like
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I said, people, second choices matter. And by the way,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: this whole process took like two and a half hours.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Another thing about realignment. In the past, it was an
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: easy way for campaigns to sort of spin their loss.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: They could say, you know, we did really well on
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the first count. We're this close to being viable, but
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: it just didn't work out. This year, they're not going
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: to be able to do that. The Iowa Democratic Party
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: is going to be recording what they call the first
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: expression of preference, which is basically that first count we
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: all heard. Then they'll record that final expression of preference,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: which is the count after the realignment. Here's Troy Price,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the chair of the Iowa Democratic Party. Yeah, that's right.
• 12:56
  Speaker 11: So we're releasing the numbers on first alignment and the
• 12:59
  Speaker 11: numbers on second alignment or final alignment, I should say.
• 13:02
  Speaker 11: So it's going to be able to tell a better
• 13:05
  Speaker 11: story of what happens on caucus night. You know, there's
• 13:07
  Speaker 11: campaigns who don't do well, like to say, oh, well,
• 13:11
  Speaker 11: you know, the raw result would say this, that or
• 13:13
  Speaker 11: the other thing. but we've never actually had that information.
• 13:16
  Speaker 11: Now we're going to be able to have that information,
• 13:17
  Speaker 11: which is good. I think it helps bring greater transparency
• 13:20
  Speaker 11: to the process.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: It will be fascinating to see what these new results
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: mean for how campaigns spin their win or their loss
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: or how the media covers the results. Because these little
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: rule changes, these little tweaks could have a big impact
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: on the expectations game. Another interesting wrinkle is that this year,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: just because there are so many candidates running, every precinct
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: is just going to have a bunch of candidates that
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: aren't viable. The math just doesn't work out any other way.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: So that means in every precinct, you're going to have
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: a swarm of neighbors trying to convince people who are
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: supporting a non-viable candidate to come over to their side.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Here's Rob Sandigan.
• 13:56
  Speaker 9: And so they say, well, hey, who's your second pick?
• 13:59
  Speaker 9: And here's all the reasons why I really like this candidate.
• 14:02
  Speaker 9: And it's a way that I think can actually be
• 14:04
  Speaker 9: a better way to do it because you end up
• 14:07
  Speaker 9: at the end of the caucus saying, Having felt like
• 14:10
  Speaker 9: you all made some choices together where you listen to
• 14:14
  Speaker 9: each other, you make your pitch for everybody. And then
• 14:17
  Speaker 9: as you realign, again, you're able to make pitches for
• 14:20
  Speaker 9: why people should come realign in your direction. And I
• 14:23
  Speaker 9: think that that's something that can actually sort of de-escalate
• 14:26
  Speaker 9: tensions because you're all in the room doing it together.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: I've heard from a lot of Iowans that in 2016,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the realignment process was pretty contentious.
• 14:34
  Speaker 11: I mean, I was in my caucus and it was,
• 14:36
  Speaker 11: you know, the room was split. There was no mixing
• 14:38
  Speaker 11: and mingling. It was a very divided night.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: That's Troy Price again.
• 14:42
  Speaker 11: And I'll tell you, like, that was tough. I mean,
• 14:45
  Speaker 11: there was at the county level, I mean, friendships were lost.
• 14:48
  Speaker 11: People were screaming at each other. People who had been
• 14:50
  Speaker 11: in each other's weddings were no longer friends anymore.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Like, it was really a rough period. This year, though,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: things feel a lot more fluid. A recent Des Moines
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Register poll of likely Iowa caucus goers showed Mayor Pete
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: leading Warren, Biden, and Sanders. But only 30% of those
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: polled said they are firmly decided on their choice. 62%
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: say they have a first choice, but they could still
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: be persuaded. Back at the Cabernet for Cory House party,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what Mitch Smith, Cory Booker's field organizer, was
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: trying to do. Shift hearts and minds. Like David Jensen's. Hi.
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm David Jensen.
• 15:26
  Speaker 12: Politics has always been a part of my life.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I was gassed at the 68th convention.
• 15:32
  Speaker 7: It's very nice.
• 15:35
  Speaker 12: I listened to Joan Baez sing. That was nice, too.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: When he says gassed, he means tear gassed. And funnily enough,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: that convention, and particularly the chaos outside of that convention,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: is the reason why Iowa goes first. In 1968, the
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Democratic Party held its annual nominating convention in Chicago, and
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: it had been a traumatic year. President Lyndon Johnson had
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: announced he wouldn't be seeking re-election. The Vietnam War was
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: still raging, and then Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Kennedy were both assassinated. The contenders for the nomination were
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Hubert Humphrey, who was LBJ's vice president, Senator Eugene McCarthy,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: who was the anti-war candidate, and George McGovern, a senator
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: from South Dakota. Inside the convention hall, the party bosses
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: were lining up behind Humphrey. Outside, thousands of young people
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: were protesting the party's sidelining of McCarthy and support for
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: the war in Vietnam. The Chicago police tear-gassed the protesters,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: including David. Humphrey won the nomination, and Nixon won the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: White House. For most of our history, the nominees were
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: chosen by elected officials and party leaders, while the rest
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: of us just watched. But the chaos in Chicago was
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: a terrible look for the party. So the Democrats formed
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: a commission to come up with a new way to
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: choose their nominee. This commission was headed by George McGovern,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: who just lost the nomination, and Donald Frazier, a representative
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: from Minnesota. The whole idea of the thing was to
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: engage more grassroots Democrats and give them real power in
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the nominating process. That plan did not, however, specify that
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Iowa had to go first. David Yepsen is a veteran
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: political reporter in Iowa. Back in 2007 and 2008, I
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: read every single word he wrote. I tried and failed
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: to spin him all the time. And I basically woke
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: up every day terrified that he would write something negative
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: about Barack Obama. Before retiring from the Des Moines Register
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: in 2009, David was the unofficial dean of the Iowa
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Press Corps. The 1972 race was the first contest that
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: he covered.
• 17:31
  Speaker 12: That's where it begins, the streets of Chicago. The party
• 17:34
  Speaker 12: tore itself apart over Vietnam. It came out of that convention,
• 17:39
  Speaker 12: and the loss to Richard Nixon and the party said,
• 17:43
  Speaker 12: we have to reinvigorate ourselves. So when the Iowans started
• 17:47
  Speaker 12: thinking about how they were going to set up their
• 17:49
  Speaker 12: selection process, they spread out the contest. If we're going
• 17:52
  Speaker 12: to have a national convention in August... and you have
• 17:55
  Speaker 12: a chance to run for delegates, and we're going to
• 17:57
  Speaker 12: do our state convention in June, and that means we
• 18:00
  Speaker 12: really have to start this process in, oh my gosh,
• 18:03
  Speaker 12: February or March. The people who put it together, they understood, well,
• 18:07
  Speaker 12: this is going to be an early place where it starts.
• 18:10
  Speaker 12: But it's also true that there were staffers at the
• 18:13
  Speaker 12: state Democratic Party who literally understood how long it took
• 18:17
  Speaker 12: an old Gestetner mimeograph machine to print thousands of platform
• 18:22
  Speaker 12: resolutions and copies of the platform. And they had it timed.
• 18:27
  Speaker 12: Richard Bender was an activist who was working at the
• 18:29
  Speaker 12: party at the time, actually timed it. So they understood, gosh,
• 18:32
  Speaker 12: if we're going to get all this information out to
• 18:35
  Speaker 12: all over Iowa to thousands of people, we've got to
• 18:37
  Speaker 12: have time to get it printed.
• 18:40
  Speaker 11: Okay, it's really an accident, a historical accident.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: That is Richard Bender. And kids, a mimeograph machine is
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: like a copier before Xerox. It involved a crank, purple
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: ink that smelled funny, And it took a while to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: print out the forms for each stage of the election process.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: It was not just like the famous tale about the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: mimeograph machine.
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: It was all these factors.
• 19:03
  Speaker 11: Admittedly, we kind of thought it would be nice to
• 19:06
  Speaker 11: be first.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: So it's 1972. Iowa's going first in the process. Nixon's
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: running for a second term. The war in Vietnam and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: the draft are both ongoing. And Democrats are lining up
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: to take on Nixon. There's McCarthy. There's Ed Muskie, the
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: anti-war senator from Maine. And then there was the first
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: black woman to ever run for president, the legendary Shirley Chisholm.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: This feels wild and awful to say right now, but
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the segregationist governor of Alabama, George Wallace, also sought the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Democratic nomination. And the man who came up with this
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: new nominating order, he also got in the race, George McGovern.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Here's David Yepsen.
• 19:44
  Speaker 12: I give, you know, the credit or blame for these
• 19:47
  Speaker 12: caucuses to George McGovern and to his campaigners. manager, Gary Hart,
• 19:51
  Speaker 12: who in 1972 figured out that, well, these Iowans are
• 19:56
  Speaker 12: starting their process in February. And, you know, we could
• 20:00
  Speaker 12: go out there and get a little splash of attention
• 20:03
  Speaker 12: headed into New Hampshire. So that prototype of using Iowa
• 20:07
  Speaker 12: as a springboard to later events. It was really started
• 20:10
  Speaker 12: by them.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Gary Hart ran George McGovern's campaign in 1972. There were
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: a handful of us trying to put together a national
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: campaign for a not very well-known candidate.
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: So we began to look at the calendar, and we
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: had a very smart guy named Rick Stearns. And so
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: one day in, I think, the fall of 71, I
• 20:32
  Speaker 6: asked Rick if there were any process, any delegate selection
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: process that began before New Hampshire. He said, yes, Iowa
• 20:39
  Speaker 6: has caucuses, but no one has ever paid attention to them.
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: So I said, OK, we're going to organize Iowa for McGovern.
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: And that's what we did. And that's what, if I
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: may say so, put Iowa on the electoral map.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: McGovern didn't win Iowa. Ed Muskie did. But McGovern did
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: better than anyone expected. He won the expectations game. More
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: on that later. But it was such a big deal
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: that Gary Hart still remembers the lead of The New
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: York Times that next day.
• 21:09
  Speaker 6: The lead sentence was, the muskie bandwagon slid off an
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: icy road in Iowa tonight.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: I memorized it. So that's when Iowa began to be important.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: McGovern went on to win the nomination and then lost
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: badly to Nixon that November. Like, really badly. He didn't
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: even win his home state of South Dakota. But Hart
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: is still a fan of the Iowa caucuses.
• 21:37
  Speaker 6: Caucuses... tend to reward candidates who organize at the grassroots.
• 21:44
  Speaker 6: Primaries tend to reward candidates who are better known. And
• 21:49
  Speaker 6: I think a balance of both is a good thing.
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: Primaries themselves did not begin to be important until John
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: Kennedy ran in, I think, six or eight primaries in
• 22:02
  Speaker 6: 60 to demonstrate to party leaders who up to that
• 22:06
  Speaker 6: time had selected the nominee that he had a following
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: across the country in the grand scheme of things primaries
• 22:13
  Speaker 6: themselves have not kind of existed forever they were a
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: kind of an invention of john kennedy's campaign in sixty
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: as we invented caucuses in seventy two i really believe
• 22:26
  Speaker 6: in grassroots politics because for two reasons one it gives
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: less well-known candidates a chance second it gives real people
• 22:38
  Speaker 6: in early states particularly, a chance to render a judgment
• 22:44
  Speaker 6: or form a judgment of candidates up close and personal.
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: And that's very powerful.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Gary Hart actually went on to run for president himself,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and that's a different story for another day. But today
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: he lives in the mountains of Colorado, and he actually
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: has a blog. He was one of the first politicians
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: to start blogging back in 2003. And he writes a lot,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: thoughtfully and pretty beautifully, about the state of our politics.
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: It has to turn around in 2020. It really does.
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: And that's why, in a way, the selection of candidate
• 23:16
  Speaker 6: to go against Trump is going to be one of
• 23:19
  Speaker 6: the most critical choices of our lifetime and perhaps a
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: long couple of lifetimes. But what happens next year is
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: going to be, in a way, the future of our country.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: But the big question is, will Iowa pick someone who
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: can beat Donald Trump? More on that when we come back.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: And we're back. I'm Tommy Vitor, and this is a
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: special Pod Save America series from Iowa. I mentioned this
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: in the last episode, but there's a saying that there
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: are three tickets out of Iowa, meaning basically, if you
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: don't finish in the top three, your campaign is toast.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Here's Richard Bender.
• 24:05
  Speaker 7: I think actually it was Jebson that coined that phrase,
• 24:09
  Speaker 7: three tickets. I have known him since he was a
• 24:13
  Speaker 7: high school student, by the way.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: It's not that big, Iowa. Have I mentioned that yet?
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Here's David Yepsen.
• 24:18
  Speaker 12: I said there's three tickets, first class, coach, and standby.
• 24:22
  Speaker 12: Because the nominee of either party usually came out of
• 24:25
  Speaker 12: those top three finishers. Well, John McCain changed that. So
• 24:30
  Speaker 12: you've sort of got to say first class, coach, standby,
• 24:33
  Speaker 12: and baggage.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: One quirky thing about the Iowa caucuses is that you
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to win the Iowa caucuses to be
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: perceived as a winner coming out of the Iowa caucuses. Right.
• 24:45
  Speaker 12: It's called the expectations game. How well are you expected
• 24:48
  Speaker 12: to do? And this race is sort of like 1983.
• 24:53
  Speaker 12: Walter Mondale is ahead. The former vice president is ahead.
• 24:57
  Speaker 12: Can he win big enough? And then who among the
• 24:59
  Speaker 12: rest of the candidates will come in second? Who will
• 25:02
  Speaker 12: be the alternative to Mondale? Boy, this race feels a
• 25:05
  Speaker 12: lot like it. Is Biden going to win? Can he
• 25:07
  Speaker 12: win enough? And who among these others becomes the next
• 25:10
  Speaker 12: Gary Hart?
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 25:11
  Speaker 12: Can Iowa still sling somebody all the way to the
• 25:15
  Speaker 12: White House? I'm just not sure it can. And interestingly enough,
• 25:19
  Speaker 12: I think this cycle, it's so big that it has
• 25:23
  Speaker 12: driven the Democratic National Committee to change debate rules about
• 25:27
  Speaker 12: who gets in. And they're setting the threshold for who
• 25:31
  Speaker 12: gets in to these debates. But it strikes me that
• 25:35
  Speaker 12: the Democratic National Committee, by doing that, is really becoming
• 25:40
  Speaker 12: the great winnower, if you will, of candidates that Iowa
• 25:43
  Speaker 12: used to play.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Power to regular people and voters asking questions in their
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: backyard to a bunch of party operatives in Washington?
• 25:53
  Speaker 12: I think, no, it's not bad that party operatives are involved.
• 25:58
  Speaker 12: This is a political process. You're electing a president of
• 26:01
  Speaker 12: the United States. I think that person ought to be
• 26:03
  Speaker 12: somebody who has some command of politics. We treat politics
• 26:07
  Speaker 12: like a dirty word. I want somebody who can do
• 26:10
  Speaker 12: the job. You can make a case looking at Trump's presidency,
• 26:14
  Speaker 12: electing someone who has no political electoral experience.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Has been a mistake. So Iowa obviously has an outsized
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: role in the political process from the way we select
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: a president. Has Iowa earned it?
• 26:26
  Speaker 12: Well, I may not be the most objective person. I mean,
• 26:28
  Speaker 12: we all can think of better ways to run a
• 26:31
  Speaker 12: presidential nominating process. And you can do one on the
• 26:34
  Speaker 12: back of a cocktail napkin. So it is what it is.
• 26:39
  Speaker 12: Iowa is important because Iowa is first. But the alternatives,
• 26:43
  Speaker 12: it keeps going Tommy, because of inertia. It stays in
• 26:47
  Speaker 12: motion because there's not something that counteracts it. Secondly, that
• 26:51
  Speaker 12: inertia always means that somebody is planning a strategy for
• 26:55
  Speaker 12: four years from now. Somebody who runs, doesn't do well,
• 27:00
  Speaker 12: but runs a credible race. And the same is true
• 27:02
  Speaker 12: in the Republican Party right now. Mike Pence is out here,
• 27:05
  Speaker 12: you know, visited the same flood twice.
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: Oh, no.
• 27:09
  Speaker 12: And, you know, the evangelical community, hosting protests, Republicans like
• 27:14
  Speaker 12: Tom Langford, Tim Scott, these people are showing up at
• 27:19
  Speaker 12: events here already. So this is all about a 2024 campaign.
• 27:22
  Speaker 12: And so that's how it happens.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: But also it's worth noting that this is a weird year.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: The field is huge already. It seems to be growing
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: by the week. And that's led some people to think
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: that there could be more than three tickets coming out
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: of Iowa. And you have people like former New York
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: City Mayor Mike Bloomberg getting into the race late and
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: seemingly planning to just skip the state entirely. While we
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: can't predict who's going to win, it is still clear
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: that Iowa is going to play its traditional role of
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: winnowing down the field and giving a big boost to
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: those who do well in the state. Olivia Ellis, who
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: we met last time, is working hard to make sure
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: that Elizabeth Warren has one of those tickets out of Iowa.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Olivia didn't have much growing up, but she was valedictorian
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: of her high school and got a scholarship to college
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. She worked two jobs with a full-time course
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: load because she didn't want to graduate with a ton
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: of debt. Olivia volunteered on Warren's Senate campaign, and now
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: is taking a year off to work on the presidential.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I first met Olivia back in August. We were at
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the Warren Field office in Ames, which is in central Iowa,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: about 45 minutes north of Des Moines. Spending time with
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Olivia is like freebasing hope and enthusiasm.
• 28:29
  Speaker 7: I literally picked up my life and moved out here
• 28:32
  Speaker 7: for Elizabeth because I did fall in love with her
• 28:35
  Speaker 7: in Massachusetts originally, and I feel like that energy is contagious.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Back then, she was having a lot of one-on-one coffees
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: with people who were just kind of curious about Elizabeth
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Warren and door knocking and phone calls and generally just
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: building out relationships. In October, things were pretty much still
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: the same, but the intensity of the door knocking had increased.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: In fact, the Warren campaign started calling it Knocktober.
• 28:56
  Speaker 7: Knocktober is just a time when we create a massive
• 29:01
  Speaker 7: voter contact operation where we train volunteers to go out
• 29:05
  Speaker 7: and knock on the doors of of their neighbors to
• 29:08
  Speaker 7: get them to commit to caucus for Elizabeth Warren.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: So, okay, when we were hanging out in August, I
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: felt like it was that preliminary phase. There were a
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: lot of like half-hour coffees with potential supporters. You're getting
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: to know people. You're hearing at issues, like genuine good
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: faith listening tours. Now we're in Noctoberfest. What's your day-to-day like?
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Has it changed a lot?
• 29:29
  Speaker 7: The only difference I would say is Iowans are really
• 29:31
  Speaker 7: feeling the urgency now. February is just around the corner
• 29:34
  Speaker 7: and we've Want to make sure we have as many
• 29:36
  Speaker 7: people in our corner on caucus night as possible. So
• 29:39
  Speaker 7: in October. is definitely definitely in effect. But we're just
• 29:42
  Speaker 7: giving more responsibility to those people that we did have
• 29:46
  Speaker 7: coffees with beforehand, making sure that they are trained and
• 29:49
  Speaker 7: able to talk to their neighbors about about Elizabeth.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: So those like early coffees, they really bear fruit.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
• 29:55
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it's definitely necessary. Definitely necessary because the saying is
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: come for the candidate, stay for the organizer. So we
• 30:02
  Speaker 7: want to make sure that they're bought into a little bit,
• 30:04
  Speaker 7: but also.
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: Us as well.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: So you got a one the other day from a
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: woman who sold you deodorant at CVS. How'd that interaction go?
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: How do you get from like Old Spice to caucuses?
• 30:20
  Speaker 7: Well, I just think that every moment is an opportunity
• 30:22
  Speaker 7: to organize things. every single person we talk to is a,
• 30:25
  Speaker 7: is a potential supporter of ours. So yeah, I, I
• 30:28
  Speaker 7: wear my sticker around every, everywhere I go, my Elizabeth
• 30:31
  Speaker 7: Warren sticker in the hopes that someone will, someone will
• 30:34
  Speaker 7: notice me. And so I, um, yeah, I was just
• 30:38
  Speaker 7: replenishing my, my dove deodorant. And one of the, the
• 30:42
  Speaker 7: woman checking me out was like, Oh, Elizabeth Warren, like I've.
• 30:44
  Speaker 6: Heard of her.
• 30:45
  Speaker 7: And I'm like, really, what do you think? Um, and
• 30:49
  Speaker 7: so we just, sort of engaged in a conversation that way.
• 30:51
  Speaker 7: And by the end of it, she was all in
• 30:53
  Speaker 7: and committed and ready to participate in Noctober and knock
• 30:58
  Speaker 7: on some of her neighbor's doors.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Were there people behind you at line at CVS being like, yo,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: can you just pay for the fucking deodorant? And like,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: we're trying to get out here.
• 31:05
  Speaker 7: Actually, the person behind me committed as well. Yeah, it's
• 31:11
  Speaker 7: pretty awesome. And I think that Iowans are used to
• 31:14
  Speaker 7: it a little bit. It's a unique place. I organized
• 31:16
  Speaker 7: in Massachusetts for a little bit, and I'm not sure
• 31:18
  Speaker 7: if if that shit would fly.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I also noticed you got a precinct captain. I believe
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: your first precinct captain, a guy named Roy. You found
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Roy riding his bike around Ames. Were you just sprinting
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: after this dude on a bike? How's that happen?
• 31:36
  Speaker 7: Now that we hired on more organizers and my turf
• 31:40
  Speaker 7: has sort of narrowed, I kind of see the same
• 31:42
  Speaker 7: people around quite often. He has this huge beard and
• 31:46
  Speaker 7: he always rides his bike around. And I was like,
• 31:48
  Speaker 7: this guy, I feel like I know he's liberal. Like,
• 31:52
  Speaker 7: I just had this sense. And so one time I
• 31:54
  Speaker 7: yelled out to him at a stoplight. And I was like,
• 31:58
  Speaker 7: do you like Elizabeth Warren? He was like, gave me
• 31:59
  Speaker 7: a thumbs up. So then I followed him to his destination.
• 32:07
  Speaker 6: Sorry, Roy.
• 32:07
  Speaker 7: I followed him to his destination. And this was about
• 32:10
  Speaker 7: the time of the second debate. So I invited him
• 32:12
  Speaker 7: to a debate watch party. And he kind of showed
• 32:14
  Speaker 7: up and we hit it off. And he became a
• 32:18
  Speaker 7: pretty consistent volunteer, very bought into Noctober, I will say.
• 32:22
  Speaker 7: And yeah, I recently made him my precinct captain for
• 32:27
  Speaker 7: caucus night, all because I found him riding his bike
• 32:30
  Speaker 7: around Ames. So yeah.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: What is a precinct captain and why do they matter?
• 32:35
  Speaker 7: So we have roughly 1,700 precincts in Iowa and we
• 32:40
  Speaker 7: have to have leadership in each of those corners on
• 32:44
  Speaker 7: caucus night because we don't have 1,700 field organizers. And
• 32:48
  Speaker 7: so the people we meet and the relationships we form,
• 32:51
  Speaker 7: these are the people that are going to be representing
• 32:53
  Speaker 7: Elizabeth in our campaign on caucus night and persuading their
• 32:56
  Speaker 7: neighbors to come over to our corner.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: So it's your unpaid army?
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, yeah.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: So when I was there in August, everybody I talked
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: to was focused on electability, even though none of them
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: really know what it means. Are you still hearing a
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: lot of that, like, what I care about first, second,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: and third is beating Trump and then issues? Or how
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: is that breakdown these days?
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 33:23
  Speaker 7: I mean, I will say people are really concerned with
• 33:26
  Speaker 7: beating Trump, and they want a candidate who's able to
• 33:30
  Speaker 7: do it. And for some reason, they think that the
• 33:32
  Speaker 7: only person who can go up against a straight white
• 33:35
  Speaker 7: man is a straight white man. And it's about... convincing
• 33:38
  Speaker 7: them that Elizabeth is the woman for the job. And
• 33:41
  Speaker 7: there's a huge percentage of the population that is not
• 33:44
  Speaker 7: politically engaged, specifically students who I organize. And the candidates
• 33:50
  Speaker 7: that I see exciting them are the progressive candidates like Elizabeth.
• 33:53
  Speaker 7: And I think those are the pockets of the electorate
• 33:56
  Speaker 7: that are going to change things. But I think people
• 33:58
  Speaker 7: are really, really scared. And they really want a candidate
• 34:03
  Speaker 7: who's going to be Trump.
• 34:04
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: So last time we talked, you know, This is a
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: big election. It's weighty stuff. You told us there were
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: times you felt like the weight of the world was
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: on your shoulders. Do you still feel that way? How
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: are you doing personally as this thing heats up?
• 34:19
  Speaker 7: I mean, it's hard. We all come at this for
• 34:22
  Speaker 7: deeply personal reasons. And I feel like I am in
• 34:26
  Speaker 7: a unique position where I was able to take a
• 34:29
  Speaker 7: year off of college and move out to Iowa to
• 34:32
  Speaker 7: fight for this. And I have a responsibility to leverage
• 34:36
  Speaker 7: my privilege to... provide opportunities for people who grew up
• 34:40
  Speaker 7: in similar situations as me. And, you know, so yeah, no,
• 34:43
  Speaker 7: I still feel like that. I still feel, you know,
• 34:46
  Speaker 7: like the weight of the weight of the world is
• 34:49
  Speaker 7: kind of on our shoulders. And a lot of America
• 34:52
  Speaker 7: is relying on us.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Olivia is 20 years old. Mitch Smith on the Booker
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: campaign is 24. They're working seven days a week. And
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: these are long days because what happens in Iowa could
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: determine who wins the 2020 election. This marathon primary has
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: turned into a sprint until the February 3rd caucuses. And then,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: hopefully for all these campaigns, beyond that. Every time I
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: talk with a field organizer, whether it's Mitch or Olivia
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: or the folks I've met on the Harris campaign or
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Mayor Pete's campaign or Biden's or anyone else, I just
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: keep feeling like I want them all to win. Which
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: I said to Norm Sterzenbach, who is Beto O'Rourke's state
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: director in Iowa. Yeah, and.
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: Knock on wood, at the end of the day, they
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: all will because it's about where we end up next year.
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: I mean, one of these candidates is going to be
• 35:46
  Speaker 5: our nominee and that candidate is going to be stronger
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: because they've gone through all of this. And then when
• 35:53
  Speaker 5: all of these kids then go work for that candidate
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: in whatever state or whatever capacity, it's going to be
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: an army of amazing people.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Next time, we're going to join that army We'll keep
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: hanging out with these field organizers, and we'll get a
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: better understanding of what it really takes to get Iowans
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: to commit to a candidate. And we'll talk about why
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Iowa going first might actually be a terrible idea. I'm
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Tommy Vitor. This series is produced by Kat Aaron. Production
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: help from Justine Daum and Agarenish Ashagre. Joel Lovell is
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: our editor. Music and mixing by Hannes Brown. The executive
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: producers at Pineapple Street Studios are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Max Linsky.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Thanks to Elena Schwartz and Nancy Rosenbaum. The audio of
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: the 2016 caucus in Polk County, Iowa is courtesy of C-SPAN.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: A special thank you to Tanya Sominator, Sarah Wick, Michael Martinez,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Kyle Seglin, Ryan Semel, Nikki Fancy, and Jordan Silver from
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: the Crooked Media team. Tune in next week. We'll be
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: back in Iowa.